Essex’s Mar’Keise Braxton finds open space en route to a 40-yard punt return against Lancaster Friday night.
Essex put the finishing touches on a perfect regular season Friday night with a 47-0 Northern Neck District football road victory over Lancaster.
Not only did the Trojans complete a 10-0 regular season for just the ninth time in program history, they also reclaimed the NND championship. Essex finished 5-0 in NND play, one game better than defending league champion Rappahannock.
The outright district championship is the 15th in Essex gridiron history.
“This means a lot because our kids have put in a lot of hard work through the offseason to this point,” Essex coach Todd Jones said. “They’ve made plenty of sacrifices to get to this point with the support of their parents and the community. It’s a really good feeling. It’s been a total team effort and that’s what I’m most proud about.”
Against Lancaster, the Trojans’ starting offense was on the field for 18 plays, racking up 312 yards total offense and six touchdowns.
Senior ball carrier Jaden Holmes led the way with 165 yards on just five carries. He scored 3 touchdowns on runs of 78, 47 and 19 yards. He also caught a 13-yard TD pass from Zay Bundy.
Essex’s Demetrius “Toot” Stewart eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season after picking up 108 ground yards in the Trojans’ 47-0 win over Lancaster Friday night.
Holmes finished the regular season as the NND’s rushing leader with 1,543 yards.
Backfield mate Demtrius “Toot” Stewart rang up 108 yards on 10 rushes and in the process eclipsed the 1,000-yard barrier. He finished the regular season with 1,055 rushing yards.
Afterward, no one was any happier about those perfor- mances than the Trojans’ offensive linemen.
“We just had to play Essex football tonight,” said lineman Isiah Johnson. “(Two 1,000-yard rushers) shows that we’re doing our jobs up front.”
“Overall, I think we did great tonight,” added two-time all-state lineman Daniel Walker. “It feels great to have two 1,000 yard rushers. It shows that we’re out there working really hard.”
“We came out iffy tonight, but we stood together and pulled it out,” said all-state center Tristan Marshall.
“We did a good job of coming off the ball and exploding on our blocks tonight,” added Grayon Few. “It feels good to block for our running backs who do a great job of picking up those yards.”
Essex, which scored on 7 of its 8 possessions, led 28-0 after one quarter and 41-0 at halftime.
Holmes set the tone for the evening as he scored from 78-yards out on the Trojans’ second snap of the evening.
The next Trojans’ possession lasted one play and 13 seconds as Holmes bolted for a 47-yard touchdown.
A Stewart fumble recovery set up the Trojans’ third score which occurred on a 13-yard pass from Bundy to Holmes. Stewart added the 2-pointer to make it a 20-0 contest.
Essex’s next score was set up by a Travis Burrell fumble recovery at the LHS 23.
Bundy scored on the ensuing snap and Stewart’s 2-point-conversion made the score 28-0 with 4:12 still left in the opening stanza.
Mar’keise Braxton’s 40-yard punt return set up the Trojans next scoring series.
Bundy found paydirt from 3-yards out and Austin Parker’s successful PAT kick made it a 35-0 contest.
Following a Lancaster punt, Essex manufactured its most time consuming series of the evening.
Holmes’s tackle-breaking 19-yard run capped a 6-play, 83-yard drive and made the score 41-0 at halftime.
Linden Rollins accounted for the Trojans’ final TD on a 1-yard burst with 2:31 left in the final quarter.
Defensively, the Trojans held Lancaster (1-9) to 58 yards total offense. That total was hampered by three errant center snaps that resulted in 44 yards in losses for the Red Devils.
“We got out of the block pretty quickly tonight,” Jones observed. “I thought we did a good job defensively of flying to the football. I was pleased with our effort all the way around.”
In addition to an undefeated regular season and a district championship, the win enabled Essex to clinch the top seed and home field advantage in the upcoming Region 1A playoffs.
Essex is set to face Charles City Friday night.
Loading Comments